I tried to bump an old thread on this, but because the board is now out of control, the thread did not bump.

This score features a tune that became an exotica standard, "The Moon of Manakoora."

The film has gorgeous, fairly authentic-appearing oceanic sets and costumes. Hard to get past the idea of a tall, blond adonis playing a Polynesian, but this was 1937. Not a great film, but makes great background visuals for listening to Les Baxter and drinking a mai-tai.

What are the chances of a score release? Someone wrote in the old thread that the score is isolated on the DVD, without the effects mixed in.

Someone wrote in the old thread that the score is isolated on the DVD, without the effects mixed in.

Are you sure about that? I thought there was a m&e track on the LD - but I don't have it (since I have no LD player either ).

"The Moon Of Manakoora" is amazing - other recommandations are Gordon Jenkins, Bing Crosby, Henry Mancini (a total of three recordings - will somebody please re-issue his Hawaii album in listenable sound!) and Vic Damone (with Billy May). Didn't know the Stordahl version thus far - many thanks for the link.

It's likely that the original Goldwyn M&E tracks were destroyed and had to be re-recorded because of one or more of the several big fires that hit the Goldwyn lot in an extended 15 year period.

Perhaps the most famous was the PORGY AND BESS fire in 1958, which destroyed a soundstage (containing sets for the film just before it was about to start shooting) as well as other nearby buildings.

Around 1971 there was another smaller fire, and in 1974 a huge fire which destroyed 3 of the 5 soundstages, an office building, and other scattered smaller buildings.

For years these Hollywood studios often had concrete storage vaults scattered around their primary or back lots, but they usually contained old nitrate film holdings and were like ticking time bombs if they and the appropriate safety systems were not properly maintained.

As we can see from the disastrous Universal Studios backlot fire of some years ago, much valuable material was also kept in corrugated-tin-clad out-buildings around the backlot, and subject to the same fire problems.

Some studios learned---and had holdings duplicated and stored in several different locations around the country---while others didn't.

(I wonder where all the hard drives containing the original elements for AVATAR, TITANIC, LORD OF THE RINGS, and FROZEN---among others---are stored...... )

A piece of trivia to be noted here---for those who've forgotten or never knew---is that "The Moon of Manakoora", or at least its melody---was one of the featured themes in Alfred Newman's score for the 1932 Douglas Fairbanks (Sr) part-talkie, MR. ROBINSON CRUSOE---five years before THE HURRICANE.

It's a nice score, and because of the limited talk aspects of the film, could probably be lifted in sections from the mixed track and, with modern sound techniques, made into a reasonably-worthy archival soundtrack CD.

And.....it should also be pointed out that the one person who lived on Manakoora and saw its moon, Dorothy Lamour, also made a recording of the tune for, I believe, Brunswick/Decca, in the 1930s.

THE HURRICANE is a gorgeous 30's Newman score, with ethereal choral sounds for the wind effects, referring to "The Wind that Overturns the World," spoken of in the picture.

Apparently, according to our own JoeCaps, the music on the isolated m&e tracks on the laser was a re-recording, made for foreign releases of the film in the late 50's/early 60's. I still have the laser, and the isolated track has a sort of tinnier sound than the more full-bodied actual tracks.

This score is one of Newman's best from the 30's, and should be re-recorded at some point.

I guess that's another oddity: going into the trouble of re-recording an entire score - and then not keeping the music-only tapes. Obviously happens all the time. If not, we would by now have a complete re-recording of "Casablanca" - especially recorded for the movie's German dub in the mid-1970s...

Manderley, yep, as you said, the "Moon of Manakoora" melody is used in Mr. Robison Crusoe, with a different set of lyrics. The vocal version is over the main titles, and you're lucky enough to get the right copy of the video, there is another vocal version as exit music. Also, there are sound and silent versions of the film (the "silent" one featuring a synchronized Newman score and a few sound effects). Also in MR. ROBINSON CRUSOE is that other sweeping, lush exotic theme that Newman later uses in THE HURRICANE, sort of as the theme for the island itself. This theme was also featured on the great Alfred Newman/Ken Darby LP, PORTS OF PARADISE, put out by Capitol in 1960. It is used as an instrumental introduction to the song "Now is The Hour."

Also on the PORTS OF PARADISE LP (available on CD, too) is a vocal version of "Blue Tahitian Moon," the South Seas melody from Newman's SON OF FURY.

And one last piece of trivia, the melody of "The Moon of Manakoora" also appears in DODSWORTH (1936), in the scene where Ruth Chatterton is flirting with David Niven in the stateroom.

By the way, the PORTS OF PARADISE CD is available on amazon as both a CD and an mp3 download. (Go for the CD, it's got a really nice booklet with it that reproduces the notes and pictures from the LP booklet.) If you want to hear that other sweeping "island theme" I was talking about, go here:

Jeez, I had a momentary brain lapse. I actually knew that theme was from SON OF FURY. I even pulled the darned SON OF FURY CD off the shelf to double-check it before I made the post, and then I just absent-mindedly typed THE BLACK SWAN. I'll go fix that. Thanks!!